


The Things I Didn't Have But Now Do

by amtrak12



Series: Yatesbert Kiss Meme [2]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, kissing and old married couple bickering, lost in a corn maze, the happier side of yatesbert, y'know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 22:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8685340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amtrak12/pseuds/amtrak12
Summary: Abby and Erin visit Michigan. Erin gets wistful when she realizes she has what her teen self yearned for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I found a kiss meme and decided to write it for yatesbert. This fic was inspired by thoughts I had while exploring a corn maze with my husband several years ago :) The actual prompt was: a kiss we had to wait for

The breeze brushed through the dry and overripe corn stalks around them. It carried the smells of kettle popped popcorn and the sounds of lively chatter. Footsteps chased each other, pounding marks into dirt paths still damp from recent rains. It was all familiar in a way: the shape and feel of October youth from the viewpoint of an adult.

Maybe that's how they wound up lost.

Abby shone the flashlight over the wall of towering corn. There was a larger than normal gap between some of the stalks but it didn't lead anywhere. They had definitely hit a dead end. She sighed and held up the map card to the light to find where they'd gone wrong.

Work had been light lately, which had been great for research, but was making them all restless. So they'd scheduled themselves some vacation time and staggered when they were gone from the lab. Holtz and Patty were holding down the fort at the moment (with Kevin which was concerning, but Patty should be able to keep things together without zapping Kevin with a proton gun -- should). Abby and Erin had taken the opportunity to return to Michigan to visit family. 

Mainly Abby's family at the moment. Her brother had moved over to the coast of Lake Michigan with his wife and kids, and tonight they were all out at a local corn maze the kids had been dying to visit. Of course, they'd all gotten split up as soon as they'd entered the maze, and now Abby and Erin were stuck in a dead end with nothing but their flashlight to guide them out.

And this useless map card if Abby could figure out how to read it.

Marker 16 -- okay. They had found that no problem, and then they'd taken the first right which should put them firmly in the trails that made up the rooster's tail, but that is... not where they were.

Erin laughed suddenly. "We're in a corn maze."

"Hence the dead end. Yeah, I know," Abby said. "But I could have sworn we took the right path." She flipped the map card over like the backside would hold the key, but it only held cutesy cartoons and a place to record the letters found at each of the markers that would spell out this year's maze theme.

"But do you feel that?" Erin clasped her hand over Abby's forearm, probably intending to reach for her hand, but Abby was still intent on reading the map.

"What?" Abby swung her flashlight over the wall of towering corn stalks surrounding them. "Do you sense a ghost? We didn't bring the equipment." A haunted corn maze, though -- that would be fun for her niece and nephews. Educational too.

"No, we're in a corn maze," Erin repeated with emphasis like the statement should mean something to Abby. "At night, and we're currently completely alone."

All of this was true. Abby could still hear the sounds of chatter and a few running footsteps from elsewhere in the maze, but here in their corner, the only sound was the wind picking up to sweep through the dried corn stalks. No one was down in this dead end with them; no one was coming out of the dark path behind them. They were alone.

"And?" Abby prompted. Erin could be trying to make one of two points here, and Abby still hadn't ruled out the ghost one.

Instead, Erin switched topics. "Do you remember in high school and we would do things like go to the county fair where all the other kids hung out together? And they would walk around with their boyfriends and sit with each other on the rides and wander away to a quiet place like behind the exhibition building to make-out or talk."

"I think it was mostly to make-out." Which was the second point Abby thought Erin might be making, though this... this was taking a different route to get there than Abby had expected.

"Yeah," Erin chuckled. She stared off at the stalks of corn like she was seeing the fair again or whatever other memories she was pulling up. There was still a slight smile on her face paired with a wistful expression. It was nothing like the beaten and downtrodden looks that usually accompanied her high school stories of the other kids, and it confused Abby as much as it was nice to see.

"Hey." Abby shifted the map and flashlight to the same hand so she could squeeze Erin's. Erin pulled her attention back to her and smiled.

"It's the high school date I always wanted," she admitted with a shrug.

Abby was so used to Erin pining for a guy when she talked about dating that the twist of painful frustration in her gut was a reflex. But she didn't have to feel that way anymore; she and Erin were dating each other now. Four months into making it official and Abby still found herself being struck by awe over that. (The high school date she always wanted and she's here with _her_. This was the date Erin wanted.)

"You specifically wanted to go to a corn maze?" Abby deflected until the ground beneath her feet felt solid again.

"No, not specifically," Erin said. "I wanted that feeling of belonging to someone, knowing that they wanted me, wanted to be with me; and we would have gone on all those dates the other kids went on, like to a corn maze."

Abby wasn't sure how many high school teens went to a corn maze for a date given that this field was currently overran with children much younger.

Erin shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not explaining it well."

"No, you are." Abby squeezed her hand tighter. She didn't want to discourage Erin. It was still so rare for her to fully open up. Back when they were in school together, Abby had never noticed how much Erin kept hidden. There were entire canyons tucked inside her, mostly filled with demons, deeper and darker than the ones Abby could see on the surface. She still didn't know how to fix those -- help, how to help, not fix -- but keeping Erin talking seemed like the thing to do in this moment.

"So," Abby lightly swung their clasped hands. "Getting lost out in a corn maze together is fulfilling a fantasy of yours?"

"Well, we are dating, and we've secluded ourselves away in a dead end," Erin pointed out. "So, that's two thirds of it."

Abby smirked. "I think we can hit that last third before we leave."

"Oh yeah?" Erin asked, stepping in closer.

"Yeah, I just need you to hold this first." Abby handed her the flashlight and map card.

Erin frowned down at it. "Wait, why?" But Abby was already bringing her hand up to Erin's cheek to pull her into a kiss.

"So, I could kiss you," Abby murmured before kissing Erin a second time, and a third.

Erin pulled back. "How does that leave me with the flashlight?"

"Because I needed at least one hand free, but I didn't want to stop holding yours." Abby held up their still clasped hands to illustrate her very sound logic.

"So I have to hold the flashlight?"

"Yep," Abby said.

"You know, you could have just dropped it on the ground, and we would've picked it up later," Erin said.

"What? No." Abby's brow furrowed. "I'm not holding a muddy flashlight."

"The ground isn't muddy," Erin argued.

"Yes, it is."

"No, it--"

"The ground is squishy. That's mud."

"There are no puddles anywhere."

"You don't need puddles for it to be muddy."

"And our feet aren't sinking into path."

"They are too, look," Abby pointed at the spot on the path the flashlight beam currently illuminated. "Footsteps. We're leaving marks with our shoes because it's muddy."

"That's because it's dirt."

"Yeah, wet dirt. Wet plus dirt, that's how you get mud."

"Okay, you know what," Erin said.

"No, _you_ know what," Abby prepared to counter but broke into a laugh instead as Erin just ducked back in to kiss her. It's more giggling than proper kissing for awhile, but that hardly mattered. Erin's head was pressed against hers, her breath coasted over Abby's slightly chilled cheeks with every exhale, and they were together: actually reunited and dating, together. What could be better than that?

The kiss deepened as their laughter faded and their lips were able to slide against each other more fully. It was building into something truly distracting when Abby felt a tug on the side of her jacket.

She broke away and looked down at Erin's hand messing with her jacket. "What is that?"

"You have pockets. I'm using them," was the response. Abby realized Erin had slipped the flashlight into her jacket pocket, and the added weight of it was the tug she had felt.

Erin finished adjusting the flashlight so it wouldn't fall back out. "There."

"Huh." Abby blinked. "I guess that was an option."

"How do you forget you have pockets?" Erin teased as she swayed in on her toes.

"Oh, no, hold on," Abby protested. "This from the person who still can't open doors?"

Erin rolled her eyes as Abby pushed on.

"The door at the airport yesterday. 'Pull to open' written nice and big above the handle, and what do you do? You push it."

"I know," Erin sighed with a shake of her head. "It happens every time."

"Yeah, because you still can't read doors," Abby said.

"Yeah... well... at least, it's not as embarrassing as forgetting pockets." Erin pointed at her like she was making a legitimate point. "Hm? Now that... that's really embarrassing."

"That's not even in the same league."

"Because it's in its own league. Like the master league. Like the really high level master -- you know what, it's in a doctorate league."

This time, Abby's the one to cut off their argument with a kiss.

Erin licked her lips when they parted. "I totally won with the doctorate league there, didn't I?"

"Oh yeah, totally," Abby said with a roll of her eyes. Erin kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr @ amtrak12


End file.
